Richards reeled me in with his heartfelt introduction and kept me interested and engaged with his tales of adventure, misadventure, work, and life.

I had never heard of Richards and was concerned that it might be a barrier to my enjoyment, but it didn't matter at all. This is the memoir of someone who has led a truly fascinating life, and I'm confident that his stories would entertain any reader. 

"All Creatures Small and Great" by Dr George McGavin is an interesting and informative book that combines personal anecdotes, expert opinions, and science to show just how indispensable and fascinating insects are and the threats to their (and our) survival.

I really enjoyed McGavin's narration and the inclusion of interview recordings in place of quotations.

The extra interviews and binaural recordings at the end are a lovely touch that I enjoyed almost as much as the book itself. 

I definitely recommend this audiobook to anyone with an interest in entomology, environmental ecology, or natural history.

'The Creeper' left me not wanting to look out my windows. 

My initial response to the main characters wasn't positive and, to be honest, I still didn't like any of them much by the end but, unlike with most stories, my dislike of them didn't affect my enjoyment of the story.

I was quickly hooked by the plot, and the story held my interest so strongly that I ended up reading the entire book in one sitting.

The story is a nice mix of gothic horror and folk horror that touches on the power of stories and the danger of belief.

I need to vaguely discuss the ending as it is the only aspect of the story that I have a slight issue with. When initially reading it, I enjoyed how everything played out. However, as soon as I stopped to think about it, I realised just how improbable and unrealistic it was. The logistics alone make absolutely no sense. 

That said, I'm willing to 'just go with it' in this situation as I enjoyed the book too much to care about whether the climax/twist actually makes practical sense or not.

I'm going to be completely honest, I had no real grasp of what Hartog was saying half of the time. I don't know if it's a translation issue, unfamiliarity with the terminology used, or if I simply didn't have the necessary historical, theological, and philosophical knowledge needed to comprehend but I frequently found myself at a loss to what was being said.

At times, the writing became almost poetic at odd moments within the text. It almost felt like someone telling a story who suddenly breaks out in song and the returns to story as though nothing had occurred. 

I definitely feel that this book is intended for readers with a keen interest in the topic and not for the casual non-fiction reader like myself.

This book is strange in format but wonderful in content. 

Told from the perspective of Artemis, this collection of poems, songs, and streams of consciousness tell of her dreams, fears, joys, sorrows, frustrations, hopes, and determination.

Regardless of life experience, I feel there is something within this book for every woman/femme to connect to or relate with.

This book merged multiple interests of mine into one gloriously intriguing tale.

Gothic horror, fungi, and strong bonds of friendship weave together to make a tale that is both fascinating and terrifying.

There's not much I can say about the story itself without hinting at spoilers, but I loved how well-written the story was. Usually when tales are broken up between two perspectives and two different timeframes, I find it either hard to follow along or the overall story feels disjointed and incoherent but Cooke was able to handle them well and merged them seemlessly into a single timeline by the later half of the book.

I started off by listening to the audiobook before switching to the ebook. I found the audiobook narration very good and only made the switch as I wanted to read the story faster.

This would be a great title to add to LGBTQIA+ lists due to the inclusion of lesbian relationships.

Some TW to be mindful of: Infant death, sexual assault.

This was a great, short story that I just happened to read during a thunderstorm, so the atmosphere was perfect.

There's not much I can really say about the story without risking spoilers, but I can say that the writing was solid and the story was good.

And the moral? Don't take candy from strange children.

This book is perfect for people with an interest in food history.

It's full of fascinating information about the history of fermentation that would interest both food historians and modern fomenters.

I enjoyed looking at the recipes included throughout the book. However, due to the way they are scattered about, it does make the book difficult to use in that regard. Having the recipes all together might have been a better choice.

This is the second book by Malfi that I have read now. 

I didn't particularly enjoy the first book of theirs that I read but I felt that they were definitely worth giving another go and I'm glad that I did as I really enjoyed this collection of short stories.

Each story had an intriguing plot, well-developed characters, some genuinely unnerving imagery, and the appropriate accompanying atmosphere.

If you're after a few quick spooky reads, then I definitely recommend this book.

I've seen Eric LaRocca's books, along with their darkly gorgeous book covers, frequently recommended by friends and fellow members of the #Horrorbookstagram community, so I was really excited to finally read one of their books.

Unfortunately, it turns out that LaRocca and I aren't meant to be.

I struggled to get through the first story, was underwhelmed by the second, and gave up on the third.

I found the first story to be highly contrived, and the exchanges between the characters felt unnatural. I felt the framing device of IM and email messages wasn't well executed and that it all felt rather amateurish, especially with the constant author notes regarding the need to omit certain details. The relationship between the characters also goes from 0 to 100 in such an absurd amount of time that the entire thing felt completely implausible.
That said, I do appreciate the final image that the reader is left with.

The second story was completely lacking in atmosphere. As in, no atmosphere whatsoever.

And I didn't finish the third story.

I can't say that I would personally recommend this book, but given the number of people who have given it glowing reviews, I have to assume that I'm an outlier.